Athletic shoe and cleat therefor



Nov. 25, 1930. E. G. HOWARD 1,782,569

ATHLETIC SHOE AND'CLEAT THEREFOR Filed March 1.- 1929 Patented Nov. 25, 1930 UNITED s'raras EMORY GUY HOWARD, OF DUDLEY, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR T0 KOEHLER MA N U o -Fic racrunme ooMrAnY, or emansono, iviessae insnr'rs, A CORPORATION or MASSA- CHUSETTS ATHLETIC SHOE AND THEREFOR 7 Application filed March 1,

This invention relates to shoes intended for use in athletics, more especially in football, and to cleats for use in such shoes.

It is customary in playing football to use a considerably longer cleat When playing on a Wet field than on a dry field. For this reason the players of the better equipped teams usually are provided with at least two pairs of shoes, one having short cleats for use on a dry field, and the other provided wvith long cleats for playing on a wet field.

Many players, however, cannot afford such equipment, and in order to enable them to use both long and short cleats a detachable mounting for the cleats has been proposed so that either a short cleat or a mud cleat could be used, as desired. These detachable cleats usually comprise a body which is molded around a metal stud or a socket member and a fixture of some kind designed to be secured permanently to the shoe bottom and provided with parts for operatively engaging the stud or socket member and de tachably holding the cleat on the shoe. The molded bodies, however, are very liable to crack and break off, thus leaving the metal stud or socket member exposed, and projecting from the bottom. of the shoe. This obviously is highly objectionable.

With a view to overcoming this objection it has been proposed heretofore to make a leather cleat of the demountable or interchangeable type since it is generally recognized that a sole leather cleat is superior to a molded cleat, but so far as I have been devise a thoroughly practical solution for this problem.

7 The nature of the invention will be readily understood fromthe following description when read in connection with the accompanying drawings, and the novel features will be particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective view of a portion of the lower part of a football shoe equipped With cleats embodying this invention;

1929. Serial. No. 343,688;

F ig, Zisa perspective view of a small part i of the shoe shown in Fig. 1, and shows a cleat. detached from the shoe;

Fig. 3 is a plan View of a part of the shoe superposed one upon the other, the body being of circular sectional form. ;These leather bodies may be made in the manner disclosed in Patent No. 1,689,219 dated Oct. 30, 1928, or they may he made of other shapes. The body 2 is mounted on a circular metal disk or base 3, and is secured permanently to this base by nails or other metal fasteners 4 which extend through the leather body 2 from one end thereof to the other and are headed or clinched upon the end opposite to the base 3. In assemblingthe base with the cleat body I find it preferable to complete the manufacture of the leather body and then to drill or pierce holes substantially through it to receive the metal fasteners 4, and finally to drive these fasteners and clinch. or head them to secure the two parts together. The piercing or drilling of the cleat bodies should be performed in a or fixture which will hold the leather body under compression since this facilitates the production of accurate results and avoids injuring the cleat body. i

In order to detachably fasten this cleat body to a shoe, the edgeof the disk 3 is screw threaded and a metal receptacle or fixture 5 is provided to receive this disk. This recep tacle consists of a cup-shaped member hav ing an internally threaded socket in itsupp'er side, the bottom of the receptacle being drilled to receive nails or other fasteners 6 to drive the nails entirely through the shoe bottom and clinch them on its inner surface.

Fig. 1 shows a typical arrangement of cleats on the bottom of a shoe. The cleat bodies can be removed from their respective socket member simply by unscrewing their bases from the sockets, and longer or shorter cleats can then be substituted for them. Usually it is preferable to make the base of the cleat body 2 slightly greater in diameter than the external diameter of the base or disk 3 so that the tapered edge surface of the cleat will be substantially flush with the outer surface of the socket member or receptacle 5, as clearly shown in Fig. 4e. This is preferable both from the standpoint of appearance and also because the compression of the leather when the base 3 is threaded into the socket performs somewhat the functions of a locknut and prevents the accidental unscrewing of the cleat bases from their sockets. A special wrench may be provided to thread the cleat bases into, or unscrew them from, their sockets, such a wrench having a tapered socket to receive the leather body 2 and the surface of the socket being roughened so that it will grip the body better.

The cleat provided by this invention has abundant strength, there is practically no danger of it or its attaching means breaking while in use, and cleat bodies of different shapes and dimensions can be substituted one for the other whenever desired.

lVhile I have herein shown and described a preferred embodiment of my invention, it will be understood that the invention may be embodied in other forms without departing from the spirit or scope thereof.

Iaving thus described my invention, what I desire to claim as new is:

1. A detachable football cleat comprising a tapered cleat body of approximately circular sectional form and composed essentially of superposed lifts of leather, a circular metal disk on which said body is mounted, said disk having a screw threaded edge and metal fastening means extending through said disk and body from one end of the body to the other and securing said body rigidly to said disk.

2. A detachable football cleat comprising a tapered cleat body of approximately circular sectional form and composed essentially of superposed lifts of leather, a circular metal disk on which said body is mounted, metal. fastening means extending through said disk and body from one end of the body to the other and securing said body rigidly to said disk, the edge of said disk being screw threaded, and a metal receptacle constructed to be secured to the bottom of a shoe and having an internally screw threaded socket to receive the edge of said threaded disk.

EMORY GUY HOWVARD. 

